In the army now

Broadcast Pix has announced the first international sale and installation of its Slate 1000 studio system to FMC (Forsvartes Mediecenter), the television broadcast network for the Danish Armed Forces.

FMC will begin using the system on September 1 to produce its half-hour defence program Forsvaret.dk. According to Jan Lykke Carlsen, chief director at FMC, the Broadcast Pix system offered a smooth learning curve and high production value at an affordable price. He expects to fully train up to 5 to 10 members of his production crew on the Slate 1000 within one year.

“The Slate 1000 offers an excellent way to produce quality programming for less money,” said Carlsen. “By our estimation, the Slate 1000, will produce an 85 to 90% savings compared to the costs of staffing and purchasing equipment for a traditional production suite. With Broadcast Pix, we can also prepare ahead of time by adding graphics, subtitles, and other features for easy recall on subsequent shows.”

The Slate platform merges a switcher with a computer card. Unlike other video production switchers on the market, Slate systems feature a built-in Inscriber TitleMotion Pro character generator, clip store, still store and monitoring system.

The computer display provides full motion monitoring of programme, preview, and all cameras, so separate video monitors are no longer needed, but can still be added. The Slate 1000 can mix up to six digital and analogue live video inputs with five graphic sources and two clip channels. The Slate 1000 is the mid-priced version of the new Slate family of products, which also features the Slate 100 and Slate 2100. The introduction of the Slate family follows the success of the Broadcast Pix Studio 2000 system, which has proven popular in Scandinavian countries, with installations in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Carlsen added that feedback from a Broadcast Pix user in Norway was instrumental in his choice of the Slate 1000.

FMC recently relocated to Holmen, Denmark, where it is building out a dedicated Broadcast Pix production studio. The FMC system includes additional inputs to accommodate a six-camera production set-up, and also includes clip store and tally control options. MCI Videotronic of Denmark will provide studio and systems integration in preparation for the Broadcast Pix Slate 1000’s launch.

“We evaluated a few competitive systems but turned quickly to Broadcast Pix after hearing positive feedback from customers and seeing a demonstration of the system at the Broadcast Pix office near Amsterdam,” said Carlsen. “It became clear very quickly that this system offered the best possibilities for our broadcast. We expect that this system will also help us launch a separate programme in the near future that will be exclusively broadcast over the internet.”

FMC’s current military programming reaches between 50-to-55% of Danish viewers over the terrestrial network DK4, which also can be seen on local cable outlets. The programme can also be seen on an internal military network.